how beers are chosen

A look at an interesting market matrix.

Basketball

Basketball

The fan enters the market here. He has great brand loyalty and will only watch his favorite team. All teams play a similar style.


The fan progresses into this market. He develops a taste for a more sophisticated and diverse games. He has brand loyalty and will watch mainly his favorite team.

Basketball



The fan chooses a favorite team, most often, the local team. His hunger grows for more diversity in style and while he ALWAYS watches his favorite team, he will watch any college game. He has a few favorite teams and a few favorite coaches.

Basketball




This group steals market share from above.

Basketball




Basketball

This group steals market share from above.

Beer




The customer enters the market here. He has great brand loyalty and will only drink his favorite beer. All beers are similar in style.



Beer


The customer progresses into this market. He develops a taste for a more sophisticated and diverse brew. He has brand loyalty and will drink mainly his favorite brand.

Beer



The customer progresses into this market. He develops a taste for a more sophisticated and diverse brew. He has brand loyalty and will drink mainly his favorite brand.

The customer chooses a favorite brand, most often, the local brew. His hunger grows for more diversity in style and while he usually drinks his favorite beer, he will drink any micro-brew. He has a few favorite beers and a few favorite breweries.

Beer

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

BUDWEISER COORS MILLER CORONA SAM ADAMS

21-29 30-39 40-60

Beer Consumption

Preference by Age

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

BUDWEISER MILLER CORONA HEINEKEN GUINNESS SAM ADAMS SIERRA NEVADA

21-29 30-39 40-60

Usage

0.0

35.0

70.0

105.0

140.0

Domestic Micro Import Corona

Male Female

How Beer Drinkers Learn About New Beer Brands By Age

Signage

Bartender reco.

Beer label

TV advertising

Recommendation from friend/family

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 120%

24%

31%

10%

7%

6%

45%

19%

8%

9%

7%

34%

26%

5%

3%

8%

21-29 30-39 40-60

Consumer Language Used to Describe “Best Beer Brands”

Q28. Thinking about the two beers you just mentioned what do you call this category of beer?

0

10

20

30

40

Microbrew Specialty beer US/Domestic Imports Craft Beer Processed Beer Other

• The consumer drinks three or four different brands in a month. This may include a mix of domestic, micro and imports.

• When we prompted brand usage it was roughly even with Strong Regional

• The Category of Micro-Brew seems to marginalize the brands and is used by less than 35% of beer drinkers as a description of the category. There is opportunity to create a new more meaningful category.

• Sam Adams and Corona lead the wave of beers considered to be high in integrity among all beer drinkers and both have delivered their brand

• Most beer drinkers (with the exception of the die-hard “big three” devotees) seem to have a cadre of beers that they consume on a semi-regular basis. The research leads us to believe that the 2% of beer drinkers that seem to be the died-in-the wool micro drinker have little or no brand loyalty and they revel in the continued discovery of “new”. They seem to use the opportunity to “pick a new brand” on a regular basis.

• NO micro has any brand equity beyond the generic category benefit of “good beer”. The consumer assigns no consistent or meaningful equities.

• The local or regional brew enjoys greater popularity.

• The greatest barrier to market penetration is fear of a product a consumer cannot drink. For that reason, Sam Adams is a safer choice for the consumer wishing to “trade-up.”

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